This 2008 Thanksgiving Weekend, the Fox Movie Channel (FMC) showed all five of the original “Planet of the Apes” movies. The first two “Planet of the Apes” and “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” were the best of the series. I think one reason I fell in love with these movies was that “Planet of the Apes’ was one of the first movies my parents let me go to by myself.It was 1968, the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. We lived about 6 blocks away on Hartford Street. My father, a long haul truck driver was away on one of his trips to somewhere in the United States. My mother thought I wa sold enough to walk to the movies and see this one by myself. I can still remember as the theatre darkened and the curtian rose and seeinf the 20th Century Fox Log then hearing from the speakers, “And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We’re now on full automatic, in the hands of the computers. I have tucked my crew in for the long sleep and I’ll be joining them soon. In less than an hour, we’ll finish our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space – by our time, that is. According to Dr. Haslein’s theory of time, in a vehicle travelling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it, while we’ve aged hardly at all. Maybe so. This much is probably true – the men who sent us on this journey are long since dead and gone. You who are reading me now are a different breed – I hope a better one. I leave the 20th century with no regrets. But one more thing – if anybody’s listening, that is. Nothing scientific. It’s purely personal. But seen from out here everything seems different. Time bends. Space is boundless. It squashes a man’s ego. I feel lonely. That’s about it. Tell me, though. Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor’s children starving?” While Charleton Heston was giving this speach, the camera opens to him and we are taken on a great trip. for those of you unfamiliar with the series of movies here is a breakdown without giving up to much.
“Planet of the Apes” – 1968 — Taylor and two other astronauts come out of deep hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. Escaping with little more than clothes they find that they have landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized while apes have learned speech and technology. One of the men is shot and killed and the others are taken to the apes’ city. There, one undergoes brain surgery and is put into a state of living death.Taylor is captured after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist. After being put through ape trial he escapes with a female human native to the planet. After helping his ape friends escape a religious heresy trial he escapes out into the wilderness with the female. There he learns the planet might not be so distant after all.
“Beneath the Planet of the Apes” — 1970 — Astronaut Brent is sent to rescue Taylor but crash lands on the Planet of the Apes, just like Taylor did in the original film. Taylor has disappeared into the Forbidden Zone so Brent and Nova try to follow and find him. He discovers a cult of humans that fear the Apes’ latest military movements and finds himself in the middle. Tension mounts to a climactic battle between ape and man deep in the bowels of the planet.
“Escape from the Planet of the Apes” — 1971 — Cornelius and Zira, the simian ape couple from the first two ape films, flee from their doomed planet (after the events in Beneath…) in the same spaceship used by Taylor in the first film, and travel back through the same space/time porthole and land on late 20th Century Earth where they are received with fascination and fear from the people they meet, where they face persecution similar to what Taylor suffered in the future, and discover the origins of the stream of events that will shape their world.
“Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” — 1972 — Cornelius and Zira’s son Caesar leads apes to revolution in this installment of the apes saga. Dogs and cats have been wiped out by a plague and now apes are household pets that are treated like slaves. Along comes Ceasar, son of Cornelius and Zira who died in the third film, who leads his chimp brothers in rebellion against the human oppressors, thus creating the time loop that leads to the first film.
“Battle for the Planet of the Apes” — 1973 — After conquering the oppressive humans in “Conquest for the Planet of the Apes”, Caeser must now keep the peace amongst the humans and apes. Gorilla General Aldo views things differently, and tries to cause an ape civil war. In the meantime, other human survivors learn of the ape city, and decide they want to take back civilization for themselves, thus setting the stage of warring ape factions and humans.
“Battle for the Planet of the Apes” ended the movie series but not the fans need for more of the apes. In future articles I will talk about the two television series and the remake from 2001. I’ll also go into more details about each of the movies.
